The Internet, commonly referred to as the World-Wide Web (WWW), has exploded in growth since the advent of hypertext a decade ago. Incorporation of WWW technology has recently expanded to include wireless methodologies, in particular the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard 802.11. Devices with 802.11 technologies have been alternately denoted as WiFi™ and offer connection into local network systems via a wireless Access Point (AP). Such APs communicate over the air using IEEE 802.11 protocols to bear Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standard communication protocols. The underlying 802.11 bearer is not significant, except that it has recently grown in popularity after resolution of serious security concerns in earlier protocol methods. Application programs depend on the Internet Protocol (IP) and Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) higher layers of the IETF stack to achieve internetworking capabilities.
Applications, such as electronic mail delivery using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and access to web pages of hypertext using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and secure HTTP (HTTPS), depend upon the TCP/IP stack for actual delivery of content. Some applications depend upon UDP/IP at least in part for proper functioning. Web page delivery and e-mail delivery depend upon finding the correct IP address for connecting communicating internetworked hosts. Hosts can be clients or servers or stand alone. Applications use the IP addresses instead of the human-readable host names for communicating between hosts. Hosts maintain a cached translation table for converting host names into IP addresses.
Finding IP addresses was greatly improved some years using ago by introduction of the Domain Name Service (DNS). DNS resolves computer host names, which are simpler for humans to understand, into IP addresses, usually in real time. DNS depends upon internetworked name servers, at least one at the edge of each domain to resolve addresses of hosts within that domain. DNS servers are arranged in a hierarchy from segments of a sub-domain to sub-domain to domain to zones to top-level domains. Queries to resolve host names are remitted in turn to each level of the hierarchy until an authoritative answer is received. This answer is normally provided by the DNS server attached at the edge of the domain for the host being sought.
The answer provided by DNS is used to update the cached translation table or populate it with new host names. In turn the resulting IP address for the target host is used by the application to indicate to the communication protocol stack where to send the application message (request or response). Normally, software applications that are tied into the communications protocol stack automatically integrate the DNS query-response into HTTP and HTTPS ‘post’s and ‘get’s. Switches and routers direct the application messages according to routing tables toward the target until it reaches the destination indicated by DNS.
Wireless APs allow association with the network that they are part of by first assigning an IP address to the supplicant wireless device usually using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), that address being part of the network address space and not necessarily one that could be accessed from outside the network. For example, DHCP may assign the supplicant wireless device an address from the 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 range of IP addresses. Then, using network address translation (NAT), the router at the edge of the network keeps track of which 192.168.0.0 series or other private address made a request that traverses the NAT router and routes responses coming into the true Internet address and port to the corresponding private address. Some business owners, notably Starbucks, have installed WiFi™ APs for their customers to use while present. The customers are not provisioned to pass their web requests through to the Internet until they have been identified and authorized. Web-page requests always return a web page used to identify and authorize the customer until the customer is authorized. In effect, no DNS resolution occurs for unauthorized users, instead a fixed web page or set of web pages is retrieved regardless of request. Once authorized, DNS is used properly and the web page requested is retrieved from the WWW.
Handheld devices, commonly called a personal digital assistant (PDA), typically can be outfitted with wireless technology to provide WWW access to the Internet, especially through 802.11 APs. These PDAs rely on having wireless APs to provide web pages and other Internet services from WWW.
A limitation of prior art access points is that Internet connections are not available everywhere. It made little sense to install a wireless AP where no path to the WWW exists. The need for displaying web pages written in hypertext is not, however, limited to those geographic areas served by wireless APs that are connected to the Internet A user of a PDA having wireless capability who enters a retail store, for example, may wish to display hypertext documents compatible with the WWW on his PDA, such as sales advertisements of items offered at special terms, or to download and display an internal floor-plan of the store showing where particular goods are. The user may wish to “chat” (immediate messaging) in real time to store personnel. The store may not have or may not wish to offer interconnection to the Internet to such visitors. Furthermore, a user needs to be within range of a wireless access point. Another limitation is that for APs without an Internet connection those web pages that are retrieved will have legitimate host addresses and document paths on the network of the AP, even if the document is a synchronized copy of one on the WWW. Saving the uniform resource locators and indicators (URLs, URIs) for a web-page from a stand-alone network, commonly known as bookmarks, will not later work unless the host and path names agree.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for providing a stand-alone wireless web service, not connected to the Internet Preferably, the method and apparatus will remain fully compatible with WWW methods, even when not connected to the Internet and give the user the impression that he is connected to a network just like the WWW. Attempts by the user to access Web sites should resolve the legitimate WWW host address and path to a local host with a local IP address and a local, synchronized “shadow” copy of the true content, while attempts to access web content not shadowed on the stand-alone network may by default show a local Web-site content that assists the user in understanding shadowing. Synchronizing URLs and contents permits users to bookmark pages from a stand-alone site and use the bookmarks on the WWW later.
All this capability, preferably, is built into a single, local device that acts as AP, router, DNS and Web server without depending on a real-time connection to the Internet. Services available on the stand-alone network may include any or all services available on the Web, such as e-mail, file downloads, chat and so on, in addition to serving Web pages, although limited to the local network.